Tag Archives: Normandy Farms

Boston

Boston has such incredible history. Walking the Freedom Trail winds you through the oldest part of the city, past landmarks such as the Old North Church and Boston Commons. Unfortunately, Massachusetts was COVID-locked during our stay. While Tennessee had been starting to gradually open, the Boston area was still almost completely shut down. We experienced the novelty of almost no big-city traffic, while we explored the city. We did a lot of walking around cities while looking at buildings from the outside. One day, it would be nice to go back and actually go INTO some of the historic buildings and museums.

The campground we stayed in – Normandy Farms – is highly rated as one of the nicest campgrounds in the US. It had the most amenities of any campground I’ve ever seen; sadly most of which were closed during our stay. It was virtually empty at first, but did begin to fill up on the weekends. The bath houses were also closed during much of our stay, forcing us to rely on our less-than-functional motorhome shower. Combining the weak lukewarm spray of our shower with an auxiliary bucket of hot water served the purpose adequately. Needs must.

During our time parked in the pine forest that was our campground, we got the full pine pollen experience. Apparently, in June these pine trees let loose a veritable cloud of sticky green pollen powder. It drifted everywhere, coating literally everything in a blanket of green. The ground was green. Our truck and bus were green. If you washed something off, the next day it was green again. It was a sight to behold. We thoroughly cleaned the bus the day before we moved!

Toward the end of our month in the Boston area, we were able to catch a ferry across to Martha’s Vineyard and explore it on the motorcycle. We actually were able to dine at a restaurant (outside) for the first time in weeks. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful place.

At last, an update

Dear readers, I’m sorry it’s been so long since I posted. This pandemic has thrown a wrench into my psyche, I think. There has been so much uncertainty about our travels and general life — it’s sort of sucked a lot of the enthusiasm out of me.

So, now to catch you up!  When last I posted, we had just fetched the bus from its parking spot in Greensboro, NC.  I didn’t bother to post another campground review for Jones Station RV Park, because nothing had changed from our stay last fall.

Altogether, we hunkered down in our Gatlinburg cabin for about six weeks, from Easter time to late May. We used the time to accomplish some desired upgrades to our cabin including re-staining the exterior, installing window tint film on the cathedral windows in the main living space (cuts down on heat) and installing a new gas grill on the deck. It WAS nice to live in an actual house for a while, but it was so strange to be in a tourist town with nothing open and nobody there.

In the last couple of weeks of our stay, the Great Smoky Mountains National park and some local shops and restaurants FINALLY partially re-opened. My sister and her husband joined us for a few days and we enjoyed some hiking, shopping and social time. That part was wonderful!

Our Northeast tour itinerary had us checking into Normandy Farms, near Boston, on May 22. We checked with the park, and because our month-long stay was considered “long term”, we were permitted to stay. Since we had renters booked to come and our RV booking in Pigeon Forge was up, we decided to take the plunge and re-join our planned northeast loop.

We took a leisurely 3 days to travel the 1000 or so miles, staying in rest stops along the way. We attempted to park overnight at a casino en route, but we were politely kicked out! Normally, overnight parking is allowed, but since the casino was Covid-closed, no one was permitted on property. Bummer.

Other than that minor glitch, our travels were uneventful and we arrived at Normandy Farms on schedule, ready to explore the Boston area (as much as possible).

to be continued ……